Why cars? Some food for thought.

[PrimeLuxeZ]

It was innate.

Before I was even speaking in full sentences, I could sit outside on my front porch with my parents and rattle off makes and models like nobody's business. Something about them just intrigued me.

Fast forward to my driver's license, and it's a love that's only grown since then.

I'm sure it'll get even worse when (if) I can afford nice cars.

"I can afford nice cars" nice as in Bugatti nice, or fully restored 67 camaro nice?

[Rebounder]

A car is just another canvas for me. My first word was actually boat.

[Francois Dillinger]

Couldn't afford cocaine anymore.

[martinm13]

I've always had a love for mechanical things and I loved taking things apart when I was little. I would find old electronics and broken things and tear them apart just to see how they worked; I had a large hot wheels collection, loved lego, etc. My dad is the complete opposite to me. He is terrible with mechanical shit, he's the guy who pays somebody else to change his oil. My love of cars didn't come from him so I honestly have no idea where I got it. My grandfather used to be into cars but then he got old and bought a Lexus.

I've always loved cars but I didn't really get into modifying them until high school. I drove my parents car for the first year I had my licence and saved up money to buy my own car. I think the whole, working hard to get something thing grew into my love of cars. I had a reason to take care of my car now and wanted to make it an extension of myself. My love of modifying everything I could get my hands on just spread to cars and that's kind of how it came to be.

I don't think I would ever want to work on cars for a living, it would make me **** it as a hobby. I used to love mountain biking but then I worked in a bike shop for 6 years and now I have no desire to go ride my bike. Seeing it and having to deal with peoples problems surrounding it every day makes you want to get as far away from it as possible in your personal life. Anybody here who works in the auto industry who feels that way??

[AndyMpire]

I've been around horsepower since day one. My grandfather built NASCAR engines for Hendrick and Penske back in the day. He's owned at least one of each well known muscle car from the 60-70's. my father has always been into German cars, his grandfather worked for Volkswagen back after the war. They just kind of put a wrench in my hand and told me what to remove and what to clean etc.
I finished my first restoration when I was 14. It was a 66' c10 fleetside w/ 350 crate motor and turbo 350 trans. Repainted the original sea foam green color. There is just something about welding metal together, polishing wheels, laying that first coat of primer, and hearing it start and come to life that just gives you this sense of accomplishment. For me it's how I feel I'm leaving my mark in the world. Not that people will remember me for who I was, but rather what I helped create.

Took me 3 years but my wife is finally catching the bug as well. It's a beautiful hobby, brings the family and community together. And it will forever be diverse, there will always be muscle cars and euro VIP builds and crazy fast imports and lap time killing supercars. I love it. I wouldn't change it for anything.
I was always tearing apart rc cars and hot wheels and painting them the way I liked. I still collect hot wheels and die cast. I also do my own diorama scenes for my diecast cars and trucks.
I also collect vintage/rare automotive memorabilia, I have a lot of cool shit over the years. My prize possession being one of the bbs wheels w/tpms from the Audi R8 that went undefeated back some years ago. I got lucky it was a freebie from a family friend that used to drive the Audi sport semi back then. It currently has a circular cut piece of glass of top of it and sits as a coffee table in my man cave.
This hobby just never stops, and it's incredible

[andybob]

Anybody here who works in the auto industry who feels that way??

That's why I got out of it. Working on other people's cars took away the enjoyment of working on mine. I found it hard to be motivated to work on my own car after working on cars for 8 hours a day.

I found I just wanted to work on cars as a hobby and not as a way to support myself.

[Daviticus]

While other kids my age were still shitting themselves, I could cognitively recognize the difference between a Dodge Dakota and a Pontiac Fiero, and had the linguistic ability to tell you. I'd also spend countless hours with Legos, Hot Wheels, models and RC cars/trucks, and would dismantle things just to see how they worked. My OCD and ADD don't help me much in that department either.

Cliffnotes: I could tell you what brand of truck you were driving by age 2, and I broke a lot of shit.

[Ollie]

It's funny how we all had hotwheels, RC cars, models, etc. and had an urge to disassemble and try to rebuild everything. My older brother and I would also watch cars drive by and try to be the first to name the make and model. Even though he was older than me I would always destroy him at that game.

I got into cars because of my love for BMWs. My dad had always been a BMW enthusiast with a 1958 BMW 501 in the garage that he brought with him from Europe and an e24 635csi that he bought new when he came to the states. After that I had a fascination for BMWs. I remember seeing a euro e36 M3 in avus blue that changed my life. I was probably 8 years old at most. My father passed away before I turned 12 so he never really taught my anything that I can remember so I learned most things by myself (he wasn't around much anyway) but it's got to be where I got a passion for BMWs. At this point I was riding moto-x, built a go-cart, mountain biking, bmx, snowboarding etc. but I knew that I'd be selling everything before I turned 16 so I could by an e36 325is and put an M3 kit on it and some wheels(the dream). I was on bimmerforums from the age of 13 lol. So when I turned 16, I had sold everything, saved as much as I could, and within a few weeks bought a perfect black on black 94 325is. Happiest day of my life. I was hooked.

I think my favorite part of cars themselves is having a vision and seeing it all come together with hard work and realistic goals. It applies to a lot of things in life. People ***** on me in highschool because I drove modified BMWs ($5k 15 year old bmw lol) but I didn't care because I knew I earned it.

[Kyle_Eagleton]

All of these stories are pretty bad ass. Good thread content is good.

Allow me to share mine:

I too was into Lego's and building things as a kid. That's all I would do basically. Playing video games I would always try and drive a vehicle of some sort (call of duty, Halo, etc).

As I became a teenager my dad bought this Saturn (my car), and I thought it was pretty cool. I didn't know shit about cars, so make and model didn't matter to me. My dad got diagnosed with cancer, and I bought his car from him. I spent some time around the function crowd, and then I started snooping around here (2 years ago) and got hooked. Now I'm working on bagging my car on the NUE's I bought this past fall. Now that I know cars, I love that it's different. I'm all about doing something strange and unheard of. So that's my story in a nutshelll I suppose.

[SuperMegaDeathRay]

Anybody here who works in the auto industry who feels that way??

i passed through an apprenticeship at a renault/nissan dealer...i fixed accidental damages...but hell i **** it...i'm more into mechanical stuff...and i am also not good in welding...last year i changed to a shop for american cars...i was fine with that but the bitchass of boss didn't pay me a penny...i was working from 8 to 8 or 9 or 10....after the second month i ran out of money...as i was threaten a legal action against him, he fired my ass...now you guys can grapple with him...he moved to chandler or pheonix/arizona... to put it in a nutshell...i decided to keep cars as a hobby <---is much more fun than a frantic 9 to 5...

[Nates]

When I see an amazing looking girl and say ohh sweet Jesus! I get the same feeling seeing an amazing car.. Or turbo spool, that's like sex.